Generally, shock absorbers are oleo type or oleo-pneumatic type in which the oil is forced to pass through a plurality of orifices within a cylinder-piston arrangement under increasing pressure caused by the impacting force and thereby damping out the relative motion between the cylinder and piston as well as attenuating the transmitted force magnitude. Alternative shock absorbers may use a thin-walled hollow cylinder which crumples and absorbs energy under impact condition. The physical dimensions of such shock absorbers greatly increase in proportion to the magnitude of the impacting force and/or the kinetic energy to be absorbed. For use in crash energy management system related to vehicular crashworthiness and occupant safety, very little space may be available to accommodate these conventional shock absorbers.